Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/437909
130 Wines&Vines January 2015 vintage 2014 shorter crops on many varieties should help bring about a more favorable supply/demand situation. teChnology/teChniques: more vineyards were harvested mechanically as labor continues to be less available. menDoCino CounTy Tyler Rodrigue Vineyard manager Haiku Vineyards Quality was outstanding, while quantity was 25% below the seven-year average. there was light frost this year, and it was un- usually dry. No major pest or dis- ease pressures in the vineyard. Weather: the 2014 growing sea- son was very dry. harvest weather was agreeable with no major obstacles. Pests/diseases: No major pressures. suPPly/demand: grape prices appear stable along with demand. yields for mendocino Chardonnay were 20%-30% below average. Cluster counts were good, and cluster weights were light. teChnology/teChniques: improved mechanization tool and techniques are necessary as labor becomes more and more scarce. Challenges: Labor continues to be a challenge along with frost and groundwater regulations. meRCeD, mADeRA AnD mARiPoSA CounTieS maxwell norton Farm advisor uC Cooperative extension merCed County: yields were better than some predicted. har- vest was very early on some ranches, and that was generally welcomed. No rain at all during harvest made it rather uneventful. We did not notice any new pest problems this year. No european grapevine moth at all. still waiting to see if brown marmorated stink bug shows up soon. the plan is to treat it quite aggressively. We are lucky to have almost no pierce's disease. there will be no significant increase in grape acres this winter. We expect acreage to be stable or decline slightly. madera County: Water was the watchword. thousands of acres that were normally irrigated from surface sources have had to shift to existing or newly devel- oped wells. this has increased the cost of production. another issue that is becoming widespread is water quality. many of these wells are declining in water quality. higher salinity, higher bicarbon- ates, toxic ions such as sodium, chloride or boron are being watched very carefully. as water R edwood efrigeration R 707-766-8950 redwoodrefrig.com Industrial/Commercial Services Winery Systems • Cold Storage • Process Cooling RWRefrigB&WAd.R2.10506.qxd 3/26/07 6:54 PM Page 1 toNy aLBright, Napa VaLLey ViNtNers Grapes await processing on the crush pad at Honig Vineyard & Winery in napa Valley.